Lost Title

Not that long ago, the President of the United States of America was commonly referred to in the foreign media as "the leader of the free world." This honorary title meant something. America stood for democracy and its citizens were among the fortunate few in the world who lived in a nation that permitted religious, political and economic freedom. The President was seen as the ultimate champion of these freedoms and would actively support any group seeking to emulate America.

Not any more.

The history of the development of South America and Central America is not a picture of stable democratic nations but rather of dictatorships, governmental corruption and the almost yearly occurrence of a military coup d'etat. The volatility of this region of the world has eased to some degree but turmoil does continue and today is often focused on the actions of the Communist Castro brothers of Cuba and the Venezuelan socialist leader, Hugo Chavez. From the shadow of these anti-democracy zealots appeared Honduras with its, to date successful, efforts to remove Manuel Zelaya, an aspiring copy of Hugo Chavez. Obama has decided that this Honduran political action must be condemned and completely ignores the actions of Zelaya and the complicity of Chavez that led to the people of Honduras forcing the exile of Zelaya. Chavez was so involved in the internal politics of Honduras that he even prepared the ballots for the outlawed referendum vote Zelaya wanted. This vote was intended to allow Zelaya to pursue a no-term-limits policy, a policy for Zelaya's immediate use

Obama has led a form-over-substance approach to the actions of Honduras finding more value in the mindless and cowardly approach that all coup d'etats are bad regardless of need and intent. Americans, if allowed access to the complete true by the news media, would be much more intuitive and see what happened in Honduras as fundamentally good even if the method chosen was historically wrong. There was recently released a film that glorified the efforts of the German military to exterminate Hitler. Zelaya is not a Hitler and no attempt was made on his life but the rational is the same and the act of his exile must be applauded.

It is a hard task for Obama to actually examine all of the circumstances and all of the actors involved in a situation like Honduras and then make an informed plan of action that incorporates the best interests of America today and for the future. It is much easier for Obama to just view matters in general terms and to react in a manner geared to support a generally held but not well analysed view.

Obama's conduct does not reflect the traits of "the leader of the free world". As his political record matures it may well prove that he wants to be "the leader" but not of a " free world".